


Ground Control

by theoddling



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Gender-neutral Reader, Inspired by a David Bowie Song, Long-Distance Relationship, POV Second Person, Reader-Insert
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-22
Updated: 2020-08-22
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:34:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26042008
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theoddling/pseuds/theoddling
Summary: An unexpected phone call leads to falling for the man on the moon.
Relationships: Luther Hargreeves/Reader
Comments: 4
Kudos: 44





	Ground Control

Your first communication with Luther Hargreeves had been an accident. A solar flare had scrambled some signals and redirected his call somehow to your line, reaching a non-emergency medical helpline instead of his father. At first you thought he was having some sort of delusional episode and tried to carefully guide him through it, following the script you had been taught in your much-too-short training only a few weeks before. When you finally realized who he was, and that he was not in any distress, your misunderstanding had led to a moment of awkward laughter and what you thought might have been clumsy attempt a pickup line (“Well if I was delusional, at least I still would have gotten to talk to you”) and you staying on the line with him well into your lunch break, only for him to disconnect abruptly as a result of whatever tinkering he had been trying to do while you chatted.

The loss of the connection made you unexpectedly sad, but you tried to shrug it off and forget the odd encounter. Instead, you couldn’t get the sound of his voice, his laugh, out of your head. You found yourself writing him little notes and letters, just talking about your day or news events, or something you saw that made you smile. They were meaningless and obviously, you never sent them, and if you were being honest, they made you feel a little silly, but they were something to pass the time.

On a rainy, slow work day a few weeks later, you were fiddling with a pen, bouncing it off the desk repeatedly and trying to catch it in the air, when one of your coworkers popped their head over the top of your cubicle.

“Hey, there’s some guy on the line asking specifically for you. Says you helped him pass time on the moon before?”

You shot straight up in your chair, grabbing at your receiver a little too quickly and insisting they transfer him to you, but luckily they took it as concern for a ‘patient’ and nodded.

“Hello?” you asked, heart racing in your chest.

“Hi,” came his shy voice, a little awkward but sweet and you tried to imagine what he might look like. “It’s uh, it’s Luther Hargreeves.”

“I figured by the mention of the moon,” you teased. “Did something happen with the connection again?”

“No. I was…I wanted to try and call you again. I felt bad about how our last conversation ended.”

“It was rather…abrupt.”

“And also, I liked talking to you. It’s pretty lonely up here on the moon.”

You felt your face grow hot with a blush and thanked your lucky stars that he couldn’t see the stupid grin that spread across your face at his words.

“Oh,” you said lamely.

“Yeah. I hope that’s okay. I didn’t even think about how it’s probably creepy. I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s fine. It’s very sweet actually. But I am at work so I can’t really…look I’m not supposed to do this but I can give you my home number and if you ever want to talk, you can reach me there?”

“I’d like that a lot, Y/N. Thank you.”

~

That conversation marked the beginning of something between you and Luther Hargreeves, though you weren’t rightly sure what to call it. Every two weeks or so, you’d get a call, usually late at night, and you’d make a cup of coffee and sit on the sill of your window, as far as the phone-cord could stretch, looking up at the moon while you talked to him about everything, anything, nothing at all. Sometimes he would just reminisce and tell stories about his childhood. Others you would tell him about your day and how utterly unfulfilled you were feeling at your job, and then later that you quit it to go back to school and learn to do something more proactive and about your classes. Your unsent letters and imaginary correspondence quickly became real conversations, and the feelings you had been resisting continued to develop.

Your favorite nights were the ones where he just described the view: how blue the earth was from up above, the pattern of the swirling clouds, and the mapwork of lights whole cities that were just tiny points, even smaller than the stars.

When you said you wished you could see it, he agreed, that it would be nice for you to be there with him instead of so far away.

“Oh really?” you felt yourself smirk as you teased him.

“Yeah. I mean, I’m all alone up here, it might be nice to have someone else with me.”

Your heart dropped. Was he just desperate for companionship rather than wanting you specifically?

“And I feel like I really know you, and I can trust you. I’m not actually good at talking to people most of the time, but with you, Y/N, it feels so easy.”

“Well, I’m glad I make you feel comfortable,” you said, smiling. “Because I really enjoy talking to you, I look forward to it a lot.”

“My life is so much better because of that solar flare you know,” he said. “I think the universe wanted us to meet.”

“Luther…”

“I’m serious, Y/N. I don’t have a lot of people in my life, besides my family. I never have. But I can tell anyway that you’re special. And when I come back to Earth, I’d really like to meet you, maybe take you to dinner? But even if I can’t or you don’t want to, I…planning all the things I want to tell you the next time we talk has made being up here bearable.”

You felt your eyes welling up with tears. “Oh Luther…” you fell silent as you tried to wrap your head around everything he was saying. You found yourself listening to the gentle crooning of a radio from one of the apartments below, focusing in on it as if it was all that was anchoring you in place, and it filled you with an overwhelming certainty.

_There’s a starman, waiting in the sky, he’s told us not to blow it, ‘cause he knows it’s all worthwhile…_

‘Don’t blow this,’ you told yourself.

“Y/N?” Luther’s voice pulled you back to yourself. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to come on so strong or scare you or anything…”

“No, Luther, it’s okay. It’s not that…I mean you didn’t…I just never expected you to maybe feel the same way I did. I mean, I’ve been falling for you for months, and I thought it would be one-sided, some unrequited crush. You are incredible, both your past and the things you’ve done with your family, and what you’re doing now. I mean…I’m just an ordinary person, I can’t compare to space or saving the world or…all that.”

“You don’t have to Y/N. I don’t want you compete with my life, I just…want you to be part of it.”

“I think I’d like that, a lot.”

“It’s a date.”

Your heart fluttered at the thought and you fought down a girlish squeal, determined not to devolve into a teen with a crush on a popstar, even if that was the way he made you feel.

“I have to go soon,” he admitted reluctantly.

You pouted at the phone even though he couldn’t see it before a devilish idea. “Well if you really must…hey, you said you wished I was up there with you right?”

“Yeah, I did. But really I just meant that I wished I was in the same place as you instead of hundreds of thousands of miles apart.”

“I dunno, I think I like the sound of it. The two of us, up there. All alone together. Imagine the things we could get up to.”

You heard him choke back a groan and your smirk broadened.

“Anyway, goodnight Luther. Have…pleasant dreams.”

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by "Space Oddity (Ground Control to Major Tom)" and the Luther feelings that hit me in the face while listening to it, but the lyrics for "Starman" fit better.


End file.
